by Ed Crowe

Tribe Robotics terminated the competition and secured a second place finish and a ranking of seventh out of the 47 schools that competed in the Orange County Regionals, being one of the best finishes the program has had in its history.

For this year’s competition, the theme was “Charged Up”, which required each team to design and construct a robot that will pick up, transfer and place a small traffic cone on a pedestal as well as a foam square. What is also very important is that each team had an alliance, which made two bigger teams. These alliances brought energy to their so-called “community” by retrieving these pieces and scoring them into their grids.

Each individual match always began with a 15-second autonomous time period that gave the team several opportunities to earn points. These points were earned by completing tasks such as leaving their community, retrieving and scoring game pieces onto the grid as well as docking on or engaging with their charge station.  However, in the final two minutes and 15 seconds of the match, the drivers of the robots took control and scored points by continuing to retrieve and score their game pieces onto the grid and docking on or engaging with their charge station. After the match ends, the alliance with the highest score wins. 

Tribe Robotics was given a six-week timeframe to design and build a robot that would complete these tasks, which sounds easy, but is more challenging than most can imagine. Due to having a complex robot, everybody is dependent on everybody, which brings a lot of pressure to the team as a whole. On the Tribe Robotics team, there are separate teams that are responsible for specific aspects of the robot, such as the framework, the chassis, scouting and driving. These are just some of the few miniature teams that make up the Bosco Robotics team as a whole. In order for progress to be made, each smaller team must produce their products and work together in order to create a working piece of machinery. 

Senior Loreto Albaran, who has been a part of Tribe Robotics his entire four years at Bosco, believes that the team took new leaps and reached new heights. Loreto also believed that the bond the robotics team developed for the past couple of months gave them a huge advantage compared to the other teams that competed. 

As a team captain, Loreto observed all the miniature teams, made sure that everyone showed up to practice, and most importantly, ensured no one was running behind schedule. In the competition, however, Loreto was part of the drive team, which entailed him having complete control over the robot. While this may be Loreto’s last year participating in Tribe Robotics, he strongly believes that the team will only continue to soar from here. 

“I want the team to continue to ride the upward trend our team has been building, and I know leaving Tribe Robotics that the team is in good hands,” said Loreto. 

Senior Marco Castro, who has also been a part of the robotics team for four years, agrees with Loreto that the team is only progressing from here. However, he noticed from the offseason as well as on the day of the competition that the team faced a great deal of pressure they simply were not ready to handle.

“At the competition, I would say there was a lot of pressure, especially on the drive team. I really feel like the only thing that could beat us was us,” said Marco Castro.  

Marco also believes that because of the promotion Bosco is giving to the team, more and more people are becoming interested in being a part of the Robotics team. Marco added that this is the first year that St. Joseph’s High School girls who were interested in robotics had the opportunity to join the team, which to Marco is truly extraordinary for the program but also for the bond that each person shares on the team.

Marco plans on continuing his robotics career at the California State University, Long Beach, where he will major in electrical engineering. Much like Marco, Loreto will also continue his robotic career at Kettering University with a major in mechanical engineering.